i have a ati radeon hd 4850 graphic card and run ubuntu 8.10 (intrepid) .First I installed the restricted driver by using the hardware drivers menu. After installation I reboot and try to check the extra radio button in the visual effects tab of the appearence preferences . I tried several times and came to the conclusion it didn't work. So I downloaded the newest ati-driver on the amd-site. But the result stays the same! Then I install EnvyNG, and uncheck the "enabled" button next to the ati driver(8.543-0ubuntu4.1) and then reboot. Then I go to the visual settings tab again (without re-enabling the driver) and i check the "extra' radio button. Ubuntu checks for available drivers and after re-enabling them, I got the " Desktop effects could not be enabled" error message again and I close the appearence preferences. And Then i got the fglrx-installer error message it said something like the driver crashed or something like that.
ProblemType: Package
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10
ErrorMessage: EOF on stdin at conffile prompt
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Package: xorg-driver-fglrx 2:8.543-0ubuntu4.1
ProcVersion: Linux version 2.6.27-14-generic (buildd@vernadsky) (gcc version 4.3.2 (Ubuntu 4.3.2-1ubuntu11) ) #1 SMP Tue Aug 18 16:25:45 UTC 2009
SourcePackage: fglrx-installer
Title: package xorg-driver-fglrx 2:8.543-0ubuntu4.1 failed to install/upgrade: EOF on stdin at conffile prompt
Uname: Linux 2.6.27-14-generic i686
xkbcomp:
[lspci]
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset DRAM Controller [8086:2e20] (rev 03)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device [1043:832f]
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc RV770 [Radeon HD 4850] [1002:9442]
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device [1043:026a]
I have an HD 4850, and have confirmed compiz now works properly on the new fglrx 8.66 driver. The problem was that fglrx did not support compositing very well in the past, but it seems solid now.